Page 154 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

then cocking them, and half-cocking them, making it not comfort­
able to be near him, lest the trigger should slip from his fingers,
and the pistol go off.’
It was apparently well known in Bushirc that part of Rahmah’s
fleet was waiting to attack the convoy of ships from Linga on
the Persian coast, which was bringing the year’s supply of dates
to Bahrain. The Persians of Linga had lately become friendly
with the Shaikhs of Bahrain, and this aroused Rahmah’s anger.
Loch’s second meeting with Ramah was in 1820,- shortly after
the Treaty of Peace had been signed by the Shaikhs of the Pirate
Coast and by the Bahrain Shaikhs. Loch was at Bushirc, when
Rahmah came there to be informed about the decisions which
had been made in the treaty in which he himself had taken no
part. When he arrived, he had with him two or three attendants,
among whom was his eldest son, ‘a lad of about twenty years of
age, of middling stature, rather good looking and most contrary
to his father, of a wild manner and countenance’. This was Bishr,
who, after his father’s death, continued the feud against the
Khalifah until he himself was killed fighting.
Rahmah was told by Bruce that, in future, lie would not be
allowed to act in a piratical manner, and should make up his mind
to retire to his fortress at Katif, which at this date was his head­
quarters, and live there quietly, ‘or lie must expect to receive such
chastisement as the Pirates of Ras al Khainia had done’. It was
explained to him that there was now hardly a ship in the Gulf
which did not carry some property of British, or British Indian
subjects, who would suffer if he captured them. It was not sur­
prising that during this conversation, when he was told that he
should live a quiet, peaceful life in the seaside town of Katif, ‘he
showed most restless, ungovernable and irritable temper’. How­
ever, he did eventually agree to retire to Katif, on the understand­
ing that ‘neither he, his Tribe or vessels should receive insult or
molestation, and should trade 011 the same footing as others, but
should he be attacked by any other tribes, of course he was
absolved from remaining quiescent’. The last condition was
probably proposed by him. One can well imagine that it passed
through his mind that, if he attacked a ship, it would be very
difficult afterwards to determine whether his or the other ship
was the aggressor!
Loch did not meet Rahmah again, but not long after this inter-
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